6 months jump in time

Well, I missed you, my dear blog. Before you think I've quit modelling: no. I was working on the Panzer IV slowly during the recent months but had no urge to post here anything.

I had VERY high expectations of this Tristar kit (and of all Tristar kits, to be exact). My expectations were based on the past experiences on Planetarmor. The wonders what James Tainton, Adam Wilder and the other gurus were creating. Especially Mr. Tainton. His Panzer I models were stunning and the most stunning of all was a Tristar kit. That was the moment where my mind declared: this brand is the "überbrand".
After several weeks of building this Panzer IV... I've changed my mind. The kit itself is really beautiful. And based on my limited source materials it is 100% exact regarding sizes, shapes and parts. But I was annoyed how many parts had ugly flashes, sink marks. The fit is overall OK, but there were parts where grand-canyon-like huge gaps revealed themselves. Those had to be filled somehow. Putty or even stretched sprue was used:

But where my patience was completely lost: the tracks. Individual "working" track. I was first frightened when I saw it on the sprues though only two-point joints, no problem with cutting - I thought.

Later I was shocked on the amount of time needed to clean each track of flashes. And where I started to cry: clicking the links together... First sight: ohh man that is super-easy. But then, when the track was more than 6-7 links long: sssshit that fall apart. And the tiny pins were smoothed down.
I played with it for an hour or two. And then I just felt such an anger that indicated: I have to find some other way to solve it. The kit's tracks gone to the spare parts bin (it will be superb for some additional track to the hull, etc). And I ordered some replacement - I give a try to Miniart's working track. I hope that it will not be a wasted 4.000 HUF...

It took me ages to clean all these tiny parts. All had 4 attachment points, flashes and some of them had to be drilled - I measured and it took ~3 minutes to complete per piece. So with 200 links it took 10 hours overall. JUST THE TRACK. I will do wheeled vehicles only for a longer period from now. Now the build is considered ready and the primer is applied.

I have half a month to complete but now it seems possible - from next week I'm on holiday for two weeks. Plain grey paint will be applied - though I will do some research and maybe it will be a brown-grey camo pattern... and as usually, very minimalistic weathering. We'll see.